Cabled Cap

This is a pattern from 2005. It was on another post earlier that’s gone now. I’m having a heck of a time getting the chart on here. Sorry :) If it’s just showing up as letters for you, try downloading the font Knitting Symbols by CET.

I originally knit this hat to match a sweater handed down to my daughter that was made for my husband by his aunt when he was a child. I’ve still got them packed away somewhere. Hopefully. My son wore the sweater, too, a little bit.

The chart is numbered for knitting flat but I worked this pattern out in the round. If you knit it flat and then seam up the edges, you may want to add a selvedge stitch to one or both sides of the work — possibly in place of the column of purl stitches on the left side. The odd rows would be the wrong side and the even the right side. If you knit this cap in the round, read all the rows right to left. If you knit flat, just follow the numbers and knit the odd rows left to right. For any row not on the chart (most of the odd ones) knit into knit stitches and purl into purl stitches.

20 stitches x 30 rows per 4 inches

Cast on 104 stitches with needles 2 sizes smaller

Work in k1 p1 crossed ribbing for 10 rows

(knit through the back on even row knit stitches)

Switch to larger needles and begin row 1 of the chart. This will be a wrong side row if you’re not knitting in the round. Repeat each row of chart one time for each row/round of the hat — the chart is 52 stitches wide, the cap is 104 stitches around.

Bind off and sew up the top, or weave the sides together using kitchener stitch. To make sure the pattern matches at the top if you’re weaving it together, you’ll have to switch the last two stitches on each side to the other needle. Since some of the stitches will be purled, you’ll need to follow the kitchener pattern backwards for those. Instead of purling into the stitch on the front needle and later knitting it off the needle, for example, you’ll need to knit into those purl stitches and then purl them off like you would if it was on the back needle. When you get to the four stitches at the top of the diamond pattern, slip the first two on the front needle off onto a cable needle, hold them forward, and kitchener the next two. Then go back to the two on the cable needle to get the twist on the diamond at the top of the hat.

You are welcome to distribute this pattern and use the ideas included and gift or sell whatever you make from it. But if you distribute it, please do so as a whole, with attribution and this info included. Thanks!